Embodiments of the present invention relate to door stoppers and, more particularly, to door stoppers that safely and effectively hold open doors without causing injury to persons or damage to the door, floor, or other physical property.
Certain doors are routinely held open for extended periods of time for a variety of needs. For example, hotel room doors are often propped open by staff cleaning the room for hotel visitors, and service doors in restaurants and other stores are often held open while a delivery person unloads product shipments. However, the very doors that routinely need to be propped open for extended lengths of time are typically very heavy and difficult to hold open. For instance, hotel room doors are usually heavy and often include an automatic closing mechanism that adds counter-force when a person holds the door open. While a variety of door stops are available currently, none are effective at holding doors open without injury. Most of the existing door stops require a person (e.g., a maid cleaning a hotel room) to bend over in order to place the door stop in a crevice between the floor and the door, or between the door and the inner frame. This causes repetitive injuries from repeated bending over, and generally exposes body parts (e.g., fingers and hands) into potentially dangerous areas (e.g., pinch points of the door).
Furthermore, most existing doorstops fail to prevent undue damage to the door, the floor, or other physical property. The existing door stops available to people typically require some form of “torque” in order to make the door stay open. The torque is what causes damage and leads to excessive wear and tear to doors and floors. Other door stoppers do not allow the user to effectively announce the user's own presence before entering a room.
Thus, what is needed is a doorstop that will not cause damage to any surfaces and is made to be deployed in a safe and ergonomically effective manner.